WYCI
WYCI is a primary Heroes & Icons and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliated television station licensed to Saranac Lake, New York, United States serving Upstate New York's North Country. The station currently brands as YCN, an initialism for "Yankee Communications Network". It previously broadcast a digital signal on virtual and ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 40 from a transmitter on the WNBZ-FM tower north of the village along the Essex and Franklin county lines. The station can also be seen on Spectrum channel 18 and Comcast channel 80. Owned by Cross Hill Communications, LLC, WYCI has studios on Pine Haven Shores Road in Shelburne, Vermont. In July 2018, the station went silent to meet a contractual deadline in agreement with T-Mobile. The station will resume broadcasting on channel 34 from transmitter sites on Terry Mountain and Mount Pisgah once an application to construct a distributed transmission system passes coordination with Canada, gets approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the facilities are built. History The station applied for its construction permit on September 22, 1995. The FCC approved it on October 4, 2004. It originally planned to use UHF analog channel 61 (from which the Channel 61 Associates, LLC name for the station's licensee was derived) but switched to channel 40 because channels 51-69 would not to be used for television after the DTV transition. In 2006, the station decided on the call letters WCWF, sparking speculation that the station would be an affiliate of The CW. However, that affiliation went to Fox affiliate WFFF-TV (channel 44), first as a replacement for its secondary WB affiliation and then on a new digital subchannel. (The CW affiliation later moved to a subchannel of NBC affiliate WPTZ, channel 5; it now airs on sister station WNNE, channel 31). While it searched for its own affiliation, WCWF finally began broadcasting on September 11, 2007, as a repeater of Ion Television affiliate WWBI-LP, whose owners held a stake in the station. After a short time on-the-air, the station signed-off, telling the FCC it was preparing to switch to digital. In November 2008, Channel 61 Associates sold the station to Twin Valley Television, a broadcaster based in Burlington which also goes by Convergence Entertainment & Communications, or CEC. Twin Valley took control of the station while the sale was still pending FCC approval. As of 2011, however, the application for transfer of ownership no longer appears on the FCC website. At the end of 2008, it signed back on from a temporary low power analog transmitter, which was meant to last until its permanent digital transmitter was ready on June 12, 2009. However, there were delays in getting its new transmitter installed so the station switched its temporary transmitter to digital for the time being. In early 2009, the station became an affiliate of the Retro Television Network. On June 16, 2009, WCWF changed its call letters to WNMN. Meanwhile, Twin Valley also purchased WGMU-CA (formerly Vermont's MyNetworkTV affiliate once owned by Equity Media Holdings) which was approved by the FCC in July 2009. That station and its translators were turned into repeaters of WNMN, which greatly expanded its coverage area into the greater Burlington and Plattsburgh areas. The owner announced that WNMN would air a mix of RTV and local programming on its main channel, while also carrying five digital subchannels, one of which would air MyNetworkTV (WGMU's former affiliation). MyNetworkTV affiliate WNMN-DT3 also began offering Tuff TV on July 15, 2010. The subchannel was to be carried on Comcast channel 18, but was never made available. Cross Hill Communications, LLC was granted the license of WNMN by the FCC on October 30, 2013. At that time they became a TUFF TV affiliate. On March 9, 2016, the call sign was changed to WYCI. As of 2017, most likely as a direct result of this transition of station management, WYCI offered no subchannels other than its primary Retro TV channel, leaving the Burlington–Plattsburgh market without a MyNetworkTV affiliate. As of April 1, 2017, WYCI became a Heroes and Icons affiliate; sometime in 2018, they eventually resumed operations of their DT2 subchannel, this time offering the Decades service. WYCI is carried on Comcast and Spectrum (former Time Warner and Charter) systems throughout the market. By January 1, 2018, both Dish Network and DirecTV started carrying WYCI throughout the market. On September 3, 2018, MyNetworkTV programming returned to the Burlington–Plattsburgh market (ironically over the very station that had formerly offered it on their DT3 subchannel), this time on their primary channel as a secondary affiliation to Heroes & Icons (H&I), and filling in programming for all time slots outside of the MyNetworkTV programming schedule with the H&I schedule. Category:Heroes & Icons affiliates stations Category:MyNetworkTV Affiliates Category:Channel 40 Category:Saranac Lake Category:Plattsburgh Category:New York Category:2007 Category:Television channels and stations established in 2007 Category:Cross Hill Communications Category:Former Ion Television Affiliates Category:Former Retro TV affiliates Category:Former Tuff TV affiliates Category:UHF Category:Other New York Stations Category:MyNetworkTV New York Category:2009 Category:2016 Category:MyNetworkTV Pennsylvania Category:Other Pennsylvania Stations